With this Thursday's White House health reform summit, Congress has an opportunity to break the gridlock that has denied American families the health insurance reform they so desperately need. Today, several advocacy organizations (including SEIU) sent a joint letter to Senate and House leaders this morning encouraging them to make this healthcare summit really count--by enacting comprehensive health reform legislation. The letter lays out five pillars reform legislation must encompass to be truly comprehensive. Reform must:
- Make health coverage affordable and protect families against financial devastation when they need care.
- Extend health coverage to the tens of millions of working Americans who are uninsured.
- Eliminate insurance company and health system waste.
- Provide portability of coverage and eliminate insurance company abuses that deny coverage for people needing care.
- Place the nation on a path toward fiscal sustainability.
The White House has also been preparing for the bipartisan healthcare summit on Thursday, today releasing their health care reform plan. The plan increases affordability, expands choices, prohibits discriminatory insurance company abuses, and reduces federal budget deficits by $1.1 trillion over the next 20 years. Read the proposal here.
Andy Stern released a statement reacting to the proposal:
"The President recognized with his proposal today that people like Melanie should not have to lose their life because of an insurance company refuses treatment. That insurance companies cannot be allowed to gouge Americans with rate increases that force them to pay up to 39% more for the exact same coverage. And that working families deserve health insurance that covers more and costs less.
"With the President's leadership and thoughtful consideration that the only way forward is with comprehensive reform, there is a guarantee that reform can and will be meaningful. And, it is because of that commitment and that of Majority Leader Reid and Speaker Pelosi, that every American will soon have a renewed sense of security and a healthcare system that works for them..."
As Senate and House leaders work to come up with a piece of legislation that can push meaningful reform over the finish line, options that strengthen historic improvements for America's families and businesses into the bill are welcome--as are alternative ways for truly achieving meaningful reform. But like SEIU's joint letter to Senate and House leaders today reiterates, doing less is not.
